Lyft driver goes viral after rejecting ride over racist comment: “You guys can get out!”

Dylan Horetski
Lyft

A Lyft Driver has gained over 30,000 followers on Twitter after a clip of him refusing customers a ride, after they made a racist comment, was seen millions of times across several tweets. 

Over the last few years, ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft have gained mass popularity with customers and given people a new way to make money, whether their primary source of income or a ‘side hustle.’

Unlike a regular taxi service, drivers use their personal vehicles for the task. Due to this, Lyft and Uber drivers have the ability to reject a customer as they see fit — like when they make inappropriate comments as soon as they sit down.

Lyft driver James Bode did just that during a recent shift, and a clip of the encounter went viral on Twitter. Since then, he’s gained thousands of followers on the social media site.

At the time of writing, the clip has been viewed almost 9 million times.

Lyft driver rejects customers for racist comments

On May 15, 2022, Adam Parkhomenko shared the clip of James telling the racist customers to get out of his car. At the time of writing, Adam’s tweet has been liked over 300,000 times, and Bode has received over 30,000 followers on Twitter.

He said: “I don’t know who this Lyft driver is but he deserves an award and a seat in Congress.”

In the video, the customer can be seen getting into James’ car as she instantly says: “Wow, you’re a white guy. You’re like a normal guy like you speak English?”

The driver instantly replied: “Nah, you can get out of the car, I canceled the ride. That’s inappropriate.”

The clip was met by a flood of positive responses to how the driver handled the situation.

One user replied: “This should be how everyone responds to racism. That’s how we get rid of it. That’s really it. It’s that simple.”

While another user replied, explaining that he thinks this is what it means to be “anti-racist.”

All in all, it appears that James’ reaction has been universally appreciated by all kinds of people as a way to potentially put a stop to comments like those left by the couple.

He has yet to make a public comment on his newfound popularity — but we’ll be sure to update if he does.